Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the BRITISH NAVY --

HMS Barham (Battleship, 1915-1941)

HMS Barham, a 27,500-ton Queen Elizabeth class
battleship built at Clydebank, Scotland, was completed in October
1915. During the First World War, she served in the North Sea
with the Grand Fleet and after the end of that conflict was an
active member of the British battle fleet. The battleship was
modernized in 1931-34, emerging with a single smokestack, enhanced
protection against long-range gunfire, bombs and torpedoes, an
improved anti-aircraft gun battery and an aircraft catapult.

Barham operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during
World War II. She was damaged by a German submarine torpedo in
December 1939, while at sea north of the British Isles. In September
1940, she engaged the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar,
Senegal. Barham was in the Mediterranean in 1941, taking
part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in March and receiving bomb
damage in May. On 25 November 1941, while steaming to cover an
attack on Italian convoys, HMS Barham was hit by three
torpedoes from the German submarine U-331. As she rolled
over to port, her after magazines exploded and the ship quickly
sank with the loss of over two-thirds of her crew.

This page features virtually all our views of the British battleship
Barham.

Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 50155

HMS Barham (British battleship, 1915)

At Scapa Flow, 1917, with other battleships and cruisers of the
Grand Fleet.
Note triangular fabric pieces fitted to her masts and funnels
as anti-rangefinding camouflage.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 465 pixels

Photo #: NH 61776

HMS Barham (British battleship, 1915)

In heavy seas, while participating in exercises of the Atlantic
and Mediterranean Fleets near the Balearic Islands, circa the
later 1920s, as seen from HMS Rodney.Barham is followed by the battleship Malaya and
the aircraft carrier Argus.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 590 pixels

Photo #: NH 61775

British Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleet exercises

Battleships Barham and Malaya and aircraft carrier
Argus at sea during exercises near the Balearic Islands,
circa the later 1920s. Photographed from HMS Rodney, whose
"White Ensign" is in the foreground.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 590 pixels

Photo #: NH 63077

HMS Barham (British battleship, 1915)

Photographed during the mid-1930s, folloowing her 1931-34 reconstruction.